Wavebird Internal receiver mod

I would like to contribute a tutorial mod that I made. With it it will look like you have a built-in wireless controller. Take a look and let me know what you think


Total GamerZ Wavebird internal receiver mod
By Ryo

The purpose of this mod is have the wavebird's receiver inside the gamecube at all times. You may want to do this so you don't have to lug around or worry about losing the receiver. Plus it looks cool and will puzzle your friends on how it works without a receiver plugged into the front of the console.


We take no responsibility for anything that may happen if you decide to do this modification. Do this at your own risk. Also, opening your Gamecube will void your warranty.


Needed materials:
-Nintendo Wave bird
-Gamebit or a Sears Nut driver*
-15watt Soldering Iron
-60/40 Rosin core solder .032 dia.
-Electrical Tape
-Solder vacuum (may not be needed)
-Pair of wire strippers
-Y-shaped screwdriver (or I used a small Philips screw driver)
-4- 12" thin pieces of wire

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave.../materials.jpg

Most of the materials can be found at your local RadioShack. The only things not available there are the gamebit and the controller. If you don't have a gamebit or do not want to order one online, visit *Sears and pick up a 5/32 x 2-1/2 nutdriver (which are kept in the mini-screwdriver isle).


Taking Apart the Cube
You will need to disassemble your gamecube. Take your gamebit/nut driver and take out the four screws on the bottom of the gamecube. Carefully turn the cube back over and lift the top off.



Removing the controller board
The board is located on the front of the cube, right above the memory card slots. The board also houses the system battery, power LED and the reset switch.

Once the lid is off, carefully pull the controller port board toward you and unplug the ribbon cable. Remove the two screws found on the back of the board and remove the plastic molding. Then you should have something like this:


http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave...ollerboard.jpg
(board may differ a little *pic from anandtech.com*)


After removing the controller board, you will want to decide which controller port you will want to use as the permanent port. I chose port 1 because most single player games require a controller to be plugged into port 1. (Don't fear though, because a regular controller can still be used in the port you chose)


Taking apart the receiver
The receiver is housed in plastic casing and isn't too hard to open. If you have a Y-bit screwdriver, just simply unscrew the two screws on the back of the housing and remove the back. I used a small Philips screwdriver and applied enough force to remove the screws (Caution: This method may strip the screws and the screwdriver). Once the back is removed, carefully pull out the board.

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wavebirdmod/wireext.jpg


There will be four wires: purple, red, brown and green. CAREFULLY unplug them from the board and you will be left with the four wires attached to the part of the receiver that plugs into the gamecube. Now CAREFULLY pull each wire out one-by-one. I recommend using a pair of needle nose pliers, and be sure to leave enough wire to strip and solder later on. Now you should be left with a container that looks like this:

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave...d/emptyrec.jpg

Extending the wires
Now you will want to connect your four 12" pieces of wire to four wires that you pulled out of the wave bird receiver. You will need to solder these wires together and then wrap the solder points up with electrical tape. You should end up with something like this:

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wavebirdmod/wireext.jpg

Soldering the wires to the controller board

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wavebirdmod/socket.gif
Front view of the controller port

You will want to solder your wires that you extended to the following corresponding solder points.

Point 2 - Green
Point 3 - Brown
Point 6 - Red
Any of the four (4) big solder points - purple

We have provided a picture to illustrate which color goes to which point. (Ignore the color of wire we have going to the point, just go by the color as stated in the picture) Also, the controller port picture shown above will be backwards of what of points are on the back of the board. In the picture below the reset switch is at the top and you will have 6 solder points in the center of the four big solder points. The Brown goes on the top left, Green goes on the top center, Red on the bottom left (right below the Brown). The purple can go on any of the big solder points. (Note: The top right, bottom center, and bottom right points will have nothing attached to them)

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave...wiresolder.jpg


Once all of your soldering is done, you will want to test to make sure everything was installed correctly. Plug the four wires back into the receiver and then plug the controller board ribbon cable back into the gamecube and power it on. The gamecube will load without the top on and should go into the bios screen. Make sure the receiver and the controller are on the same channel and test it out.

If the controller works, proceed to the next step. If the controller does not work, make sure your solder points are good and that you don't have any crossed solder points on the board. Also make sure the wires are plugged into the receiver and that you didn't break any of the controller boards points.


Receiver Placement
I chose the right side of the cube, opposite side of the fan unit as the side to house the receiver. Run the wires over to the side and vertically stand the receiver by the screw hole. Once in place, you may want to use a little electrical tape to hold it in place.

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave...cplacement.jpg

http://www.totalgamerz.com/pics/wave...recoutside.jpg


Closing it up:
Assuming that you already tested the unit to ensure the installation was a success (make sure to write down which channel the receiver is turned to), carefully put the lid back on. Make sure the receiver isn't in the way of the lid or any internal parts and proceed to put the four screws back in. Enjoy!


All content is copyright Totalgamerz.com. If you would like to use any or part of this information for anything other than personal use, please contact me first for permission.

If you have any questions, comments or need help with this mod. Email me (ryo) and I will try to answer any questions.

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great mod, thanks! think i'll try that one out. couple of questions first:

have you tried plugging a bongos controller into port 1 after carrying out the mod, does it still work ok?

would it be exactly the same mod for port 2, 3 and 4?

how much room does it look like there is for receivers? i'd love to have 2 or more receivers in there...

again though, thanks! i love the cube's aesthetics and i think the wavebird receiver just ruins the overall design of the unit.

Im glad that you like the mod. I haven't tried the bongos controller with this mod. If I can get ahold of set I will try it out.

Yes, you would exactly mod the other ports the same way and there is room for other receivers. Instead of sitting it upright like I did, you can turn them sideways and stack them ontop of each other. I think you can get about 3 in there. Just try and make sure not to block the fan hole too much. There may be other areas to fit them also.

Yea, I love being able to have the mod without anything plugged into the front. It looks real nice, just be careful when you solder the back of the controller board and not to take away any of the pre-existing solder.

The bongos is just a regular controller with a different design, so test it wit a regular controller. It would be good to know what happends.

(Don't fear though, because a regular controller can still be used in the port you chose)

Heh, nuff said. :-p

OK, then this mod rox



But what happends if you use a wavebird and a regular controller at the same time?

Haha, thats a good question. I imagine you could use two controllers for the player at the same time. I will try that out.

did this mod lastnight and managed to fit two receivers in there, both working fine. a quick note to add though, those people with a qoob pro chip might want to be wary of the position if they are fitting this mod, as i needed to do a little rearranging to get a receiver in the suggested location from the tut. still worked fine though.

an alternative location for people with a qoob chip is where i put my second receiver, there is a spot next to the fan where it sits really snugly and only needs short wires as it is right next to the control port.

with the chip in there too, it doesn't look like there will be room for another receiver! i was, however, trying to work out if an internal memory card would be a possibility... another thing that would be good would be to have the receiver's led relocated or replaced by leds in the little dots above the controller ports, that would be cool.

worked first time for both controllers, so thanks again for the excellent guide ryo.

Thanks, glad you were able to do the mod on the first try. (it took me a couple of tries, but thats what happens when you try something for the first time ) I was going to suggest the area by the fan, but that space could be occupied by the Viper. Thanks for the feedback.

It would be pretty cool to be able to add the receiver led to the front of the console. It would take a little work, but would be possible. I would be afraid to pull the led out of the receiver and break the board.

I just did this too. Another add I did was take off the metal shell around the center of the pcb and wrap the pcb in electrical tape. I was then able to fit it between the dvd drive and controller board.

I had to do this awhile back when I built my gamecube into my xbox.
I didnt want any wires.
Have a look....

1

Needless to say I had to relocate the xbox psu/hdd down stairs...

2
3
4

Xbox has a removable hdd rack and flashed TSOP...Gamecube at the time I built this thing only had pso exploit...thus the hardwired bba.

5

All together...

6

Originally posted by free
I had to do this awhile back when I built my gamecube into my xbox.
I didnt want any wires.
Have a look....

1

Needless to say I had to relocate the xbox psu/hdd down stairs...

2
3
4

Xbox has a removable hdd rack and flashed TSOP...Gamecube at the time I built this thing only had pso exploit...thus the hardwired bba.

5

All together...

6

Only pictures 2 and 5 work.

wow...
only 2 and 5 work for me. Check you links (and pm box).

Hmm, sorry!
Try these....

1
2
3
4
5
6

Few more...

7
8

....A little sloppy but atleast I could undock the dvddrive without any problems.

Since its allready a brick, why not ad an lcd...

9
10

Helltick.

those work. I can't understand what part is an xbox though. They don't look like any xbox I've ever seen. Oh, wait. I see the little add on box. Looks like a rack mountable server case or whatever their called. Anyway, looks good!